Department of English

This is a course for anyone who is still waiting for the Hogwarts owl to arrive, who inhabits otherwordly places, or just wants to write about them. Speculative fiction takes many forms, from ordinary life with a little twist to hard sci-fi, alternate histories to imagined futures, children's fairy tales to grown-up horror...with some Grimm intersections. Students will read across time and sub-genre, and will write a series of original pieces: honing their voice, creating believable story, characters, and language, all with a fantastical element, whether big or small, for young audiences or mature ones. We will discuss these pieces as a group in class. This course is based around lots of reading and writing, some lively debate, and livelier critique. The possibilities are endless. After all, isn’t that the very best part of fiction, the idea that anything is possible?